Microsoft also wanted to reduce commission for Xbox download store to 12 percent

Earlier this year, Microsoft had planned to lower the commission for games on the Xbox download store, but chose not to. The company also wanted to link that reduced commission to handing over the streaming rights of a game.

The Microsoft Store is available on both Windows 10 and Xbox. According to court documents, Microsoft planned to reduce the commission for all games in both stores from 30 percent to 12 percent in the first half of 2021. In the end, Microsoft chose to only implement that reduced commission on the PC version of the web store. Why is not clear; to The Verge, the company confirms that it will not lower its console commission.

The court documents were prepared in January, but were released Friday as part of the lawsuit between Epic Games and Apple. The documents also state that Microsoft was considering linking that reduced PC game commission to handing over a game’s streaming rights to Microsoft.

The company is strongly committed to cloud gaming. Formerly known as Project xCloud, the service currently only works on Android smartphones. The company is working on iOS and Windows 10 support. Microsoft declined to comment to The Verge about the streaming rights proposal. It is therefore not clear whether publishers should indeed give away the streaming rights for a game in exchange for the reduced commission.

When announcing the reduced PC games commission, Microsoft spoke of a “clear revenue distribution without obligations.” It therefore seems that the company has not made the streaming rights part of the reduced commission. With the reduced commission, the company says it wants to get more games in its download store. The commission for non-game apps remains at 15 percent in both Microsoft Stores.